In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel had a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies.

[5] Although raised on a farm by her parents and grandparents, she often rode the subway into the city to explore Manhattan, where she fell in love with Greenwich Village.

[9] As a young woman, Apfel worked as a copywriter for Women's Wear Daily, earning $15 a week, and for interior designer Elinor Johnson,[2] decorating apartments for resale and honing her talent for sourcing rare items.

The Apfels specialised in the reproduction of fabrics from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and traveled to Europe twice a year in search of textiles they could not source in the United States.

[11] Over her career, Iris Apfel took part in a variety of design restoration projects, including work at the White House for nine presidents: Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

[11] She found the White House contract to be among the easiest of Old World Weavers' clients, as they generally wanted only to replicate what had previously been in place.

[27] On September 13, 2005, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City premiered the exhibition Rara Avis [Rare Bird]: The Irreverent Iris Apfel, showcasing her style.

[30] The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History in Boynton Beach, Florida, is designing a building that will house a dedicated gallery of Apfel's clothes, accessories, and furnishings.

[31] Apfel was the focus of the Albert Maysles documentary Iris,[32][33][34][35] which premiered at the New York Film Festival in October 2014, and was subsequently acquired by Magnolia Pictures for US theatrical distribution in 2015.

[38][39] It is believed that Iris Apfel was one of the inspirations behind the creation of the composite character Edna Mode who appears in the animated film The Incredibles and its sequel Incredibles 2; the other inspirations were costume designer Edith Head, editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine Anna Wintour, and actress Linda Hunt.